Communication networks are well known in the art. Multiple nodes may be incorporated into a common communication system for the purposes of exchanging data of various kinds. Such networks may exist for myriad purposes and incorporate anywhere from two nodes to millions of nodes. While many such networks are relatively static in location and composition, networks are increasingly physically mobile and rapidly variable in composition. Thus, while many conventionally wired networks do not pose substantial challenges in maintaining the integrity of the network even when nodes move about and enter and leave the network, managing mobile networks while also maintaining the security of the network may create relatively greater challenges in supporting the network.
Contemporary standard networking protocols, such as Open Shortest Path First (OSPF) and Border Gateway Protocol (BGP), were originally designed for largely static, terrestrial networks. As such, they incorporate conventional security mechanisms to combat conventional static, terrestrial network security problems. Such security mechanisms tend to rely on static information, reliable fast network connections, and, in various cases, a reliable connection to a key management server. In such networking protocols, network administrators may manually configure the security for each router link, which may be time consuming, complicated and not practical for a mobile network. Certain security protocols may utilize signed certificates for message authentication, which again may be impractical in circumstances where connections are not as fast, reliable or provide as much or sufficient bandwidth as terrestrial networks.
Such problems may be magnified in the event the network in question is an airborne network or otherwise non-terrestrial. In such networks, the relative speed of each node may cause the composition of the network and links between nodes to change with relatively high frequency. While OSPF and BGP may function to operate such a non-terrestrial network, security with such protocols in an environment with fast-changing network membership and links may be unacceptably easy to compromise or otherwise vulnerable. In such a non-terrestrial network, sub-networks, and particularly those on the spatial fringe of the network, may have one or more attributes that hamper the operation of existing routing security systems, including bandwidth constrained wireless links, mobile ad hoc network operation, and intermittent connectivity with the global information grid (GIG) backbone network.
Various specific types of routing protocols such as OSPF and BGP, such as digital signature based OSPF, S-BGP, and soBGP, employ digital certificates for message authentication and rely on a public key infrastructure for encryption key management, such as key updates and key revocation. The bulkiness of digital certificates may make such an approach impractical for the bandwidth-constrained wireless subnets of a non-terrestrial network. Furthermore, intermittent disconnections of a non-terrestrial subnet from a backbone of the network of the global information grid may make the certificate servers temporarily or permanently inaccessible, thereby hindering the operation of the key management mechanism. Finally, access to the Public Key Infrastructure (PKI) services by the routing system typically assumes correct functioning of the routing function to route packets to and from the network PKI servers.